FCSO: Kids found walking on dirt road in 100 degree heat

August 12, 2011 at 5:58 PM EST - Updated June 25 at 1:56 AM

Riggins has been charged with unlawful neglect of a child (Source: Florence County Detention Center)

FLORENCE COUNTY, SC (WMBF) – The Florence County Sheriff's Office has arrested a woman deputies say told officials her children were staying with a relative when they were really in the storage building they called home and told to sneak out a back window.

Capt. Brett Camp, spokesman for the Florence County Sheriff's Office, said deputies and officials with the Department of Social Services received a report of possible child neglect at a residence along Lonesome Dove Lane. According to Camp, Barbara Jean Riggins told officials her children were not that the residence, but staying with a relative out of town.

Camp said at that time, Riggins then entered the storage building in which they were living and told her children ages 14, 12, 10 and 9 to leave the residence out of a back window and go into the woods. It was about 100 degrees outside, according to Camp.

The children were found walking along a dirt road and Riggins was then arrested and charged with unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person.

Riggins appeared before a magistrate and received a $5,000 surety bond and remains incarcerated at the Florence County Detention Center.